Friends To The End?
by GuardianRyoji
Summary: When two friends get thrown into Spira, what will happen when they get involved with a certain summoner's party and find out a secret that could tear their friendship apart? OC. Ch. 4 - Posted for your protection... and enjoyment.
1. Chapter 1 Falling Apart

**Disclaimer: I do not own any creative property belonging to FFX or Square-Enix. I do however claim credit for original characters and ideas.**

_Hi everyone! This is my first ever story (holla) and I'm very very excited to share it with you all. Please comment, review, etc. Thank you and enjoy!_

**Chapter 1 – Falling Apart**

Darkness. Everything is dark. Not a sound to be heard.

_Waiting… _

I'm usually pretty patient but still…this is the big one. This will either make us legends or just another forgotten name, and no one here's willing to settle for the latter.

_Still waiting…_

I suppose you're wondering what I'm going on about. My name is Zeek and I'm a blitzball player for the Zanarkand Abes, a Defender to be exact. It's my job to stop the other team from getting near our goal. As for the Abes, we're one of the top ranked teams in Zanarkand and tonight we're playing the Zanarkand Duggles. The Duggles will be in their traditional red and black uniforms while us Abes will be in dark blue and yellow. Speaking of uniforms we got some new ones this year. I got this yellow vest that covers up a tight black short sleeve shirt made for underwater sports. Along with that I have a black forearm guard, black and white gloves and dark blue shorts. We also get shoes that are virtually weightless while underwater. Those are dark blue and yellow as well. All this goes wonderfully with my brownish-red hair and blue-gray eyes. Anyway enough of the dress-up. Back to blitzball. Where was I again...oh yeah. Since Zanarkand is such a big city it has multiple blitzball teams. In fact, I can't recall ever playing a team that wasn't from Zanarkand. With all this talk about Zanarkand I should explain that too.

So, how does one begin to describe Zanarkand? Well, it's really really big. Okay that's kind of vague. There's about a few million people populating the city. It's also one of the most technologically advanced cities around. It hums with activity from the early morning to the late evening. Lights, music, and people fill the streets. It's like the city never sleeps. Almost like a giant amusement park. And let's not forget the blitzball stadium. The stands are packed full every night. Blitz is so popular that games are held almost every night. The crowd's cheers fill the air as each teams gives it their all every minute, every second. The passion of the fans is matched only by the players' passion to play and win.

As for right now, us Abes are playing the Duggles for the championship match in the Jecht Memorial Cup. For those who don't know Jecht was a famous blitzball player about ten years ago. He also used to play for the Abes. I've even met him a few times when I was younger. The tournament is being held in honor of him. He just up and disappeared ten years ago. The whole incident was pretty strange. Jecht went out to sea for training one day and just never came back. Anyone who is or was a fan of blitzball was devastated by the news of his disappearance. Well, except for one guy.

_There's a dull hum…_

Butterflies are dancing in my stomach. Haha, still haven't gotten over that. But it's nowhere near as bad as when I first started blitzball for the Abes last year. In my first match of the season I panicked and almost drowned. Man, that was a mess. Anyway there's nothing to worry about now. I only get nervous before the start of a match now. Besides I can't go choking during out biggest match of the year. Like I said our names will go down in history if we win this. Part of it may be due to a certain tournament memorial's offspring who's on the team.

Blinding light flashes as the pod fills with water almost instantly. Players from both teams swim around getting into position.

There's a lot of pressure on him. I'm not sure if he knows it. If he does he sure doesn't show it. I'm glad I'm not in his shoes right now.

The crowd roars, as the match is about to start. You can't make out any distinct sounds.

He just started this year and has quickly become one of the best Forwards that Zanarkand has seen since Jecht. Forwards are basically the people who score in blitzball. But seeing as Jecht is the guy's dad it only makes sense he'd be so good. One thing I can't wrap my head around is how much the guy despises his old man. He's told me stories of how his dad would just tear him down, saying, "You're no good. You'll never beat me. You can't do it kid. Why don't you just give up." It's weird because Jecht was never like that when I was around. I guess I should be happy my family is supportive of me.

_5…4…3…2…1…Bzzzzzzt!!!_

Alright, game time.

Both Centers jump up to get possession of the ball. Their primary job is to get the ball passed to the Forwards. The Abe Center grabs it and quickly swims towards the Left Forward, Jecht's son. The Center throws it and the Forward turns around and catches it. He looks to his left and sees two opposing blitzers headed his way. He swims towards them slowly at first, playing it safe. As they get closer he speeds up. I keep an eye out on the Forward, making sure no stray Duggles sneak up from behind.

Thirty feet, twenty feet, ten feet, the two Duggles get closer and closer. Just as one shoots out to grab the ball the Abe Forward suddenly drops underneath the Duggle, dodging the attack smoothly, and continues forward, the next Duggle waiting eagerly. As the Duggle gets ready to attack the Abe Center shoots up in front of him, taking the hit in place of the Forward. The Forward quickly swims around them and continues swimming towards the Duggle's goal. The remaining Duggles rush towards the Forward hoping to halt his advance. One of the Duggle Defenders attempts to tackle the Forward but gets pushed out of the way by the. With one Duggle left to overcome the Forward keeps heading towards the goal. Once the Duggle swims right up to the Forward the Forward swiftly dashes upward and throws the ball back to the second Abe Forward who had swam back towards the goal. The second Forward winds up and kicks the ball with great force, just barely scraping the tips of the Goalkeeper's fingers. The buzzer rings signaling the Abe's, as well as the matches, first goal. The crowd cheers even louder, boosting the morale of all us Abes.

Once the ball get launched the Duggle's Center grabs it with a burning ferocity burning in his eyes. As both the Right Defender and myself close in the Duggle plows right through the Abe Center. It's clear this isn't going to be easy. I signal the other Abe Defender to get behind me to execute one of our newest defense plays. Once we get lined up we swim towards the raging Duggle Center. As he drops his shoulder to tackle me I quickly drop just low enough to horizontally line myself up with him and grab his arms and flip him upside down. The other Defender is then able to grab the ball and pass it on. However the Duggle Center struggles to maintain possession of the ball and doesn't let go easily. As soon as the Abe Defender touches the ball the Duggle Center kicks his feet up, struggling to swat away the Abe Defender. I wrap my legs around the center to keep him from wriggling free, and from kicking my teammate in the face. After some struggling our Defender manages to pry the ball loose and swims off to get into passing position. Realizing he just lost the ball, the Duggle Center starts to squirm even harder. Just as I think my grip is about to break he lands an elbow to my face, stunning me and allowing him to chase after the ball.

I slowing start sinking to the bottom of the sphere pool still stunned from the elbow. "_Come on, shake it off_" I think to myself.

Slowly I start swimming back towards the middle of the field. The other Abe Defender stops momentarily, looking for an open teammate to pass to. Just as he's about to get moving the Duggle Center rushes up from underneath and kicks the ball out from the Defender's hands. The ball shoots up through the water and out the top of the sphere pool. Way ahead of everyone else, our Star Forward jumps out of the sphere pool, positioning himself to launch a powerful upside-down kick to the ball. As soon as he flips back he sees several lights flash past him and colliding into surrounding buildings with deafening explosions. Everyone in the stadium looks around in confusion trying to figure out what's going on. Even us in the sphere pool could hear the explosions.

All of a sudden more blasts hit the stadium, tearing it apart. The ground and even the sphere pool start to shake as the former starts splitting apart while the latter starts dissipating. Everyone in the stadium starts running out of the stadium in a panic. Unfortunately most of the players, myself included, are too late in trying to escape. Before I know it, the pool starts dissipating and all the players inside start falling. Mind you it isn't a short fall either. This sphere pool is sitting a good 30 ft above the ground. And that's the very bottom of it. As I start falling, I notice a particular player hanging by the roof of the stadium.

Falling…faster…faster…fa

…

Darkness…everything is dark…again. Not a sound to heard. Well, except for that pounding ache in my head. Ow.

"Ahh…ow…ugh…" As my vision slowing starts coming into focus I notice the stadium sitting in ruins. "Wha…no…" the roof is completely disintegrated. The walls have broken down and crumbled. And the sphere pool, well, it's like it was never there. I try to stand up, shakily at first, head still throbbing. Looking around, I notice the floor is littered with the bodies of blitzball players unconscious. I go over to try and wake up my fellow teammates but they're all out cold. Unable to wake anyone up, I walk to the stadium entrance, crawling over bits of debris left behind in the recent destruction. Luckily the corridor wasn't too messed up which made for an easy escape. when I get outside I see several people who escaped from the stadium running away in panic. Also, there's a certain blitzer sprawled out on the ground.

"Tidus!"

_Well I hope you all enjoyed this. Once again please comment and review and thank you for reading!_


	2. Chapter 2 Fighting for Survival

"Hey, Tidus! You all right?" I ask as I run over to my teammate. He slowly gets to his fee with a hand on his head. "Ugh, my head," He groans. "Zeek, what happened?"

"I have no idea. One minute we're blitzing, and then next the stadium is being blasted apart. Listen; let's get out of here. It's not safe," I say.

"Yeah…hey, there's Auron!" Tidus suddenly shouts, as he notices a man in a red robe with a bottle at his hip.

"What?"

"Auron! What are you doing here?" Tidus questions.

Auron replies, "I was waiting for the two of you."

"What are you talking about?" continues to question as the man starts to walk down the road.

"Well, we might as well follow him," I say, "Come on."

Tidus and I chase after Auron down the road.

After a short distance we manage to lose sight of Auron in the crowd. Stopping to look, we notice something…well, strange happen. For no apparent reason, everyone on the road suddenly stops moving.

"Hmm…this is weird, " I say to break the silence, laying on a thick layer of sarcasm. Both of us look around, trying to find some reason as to what is going on. Tidus turns around to see a small child in a sleeveless purple hooded coat and tattered black pants in front of him. His hood covers most of his face, adding to the already mysterious circumstance we managed to land ourselves in.

"It begins," the child says.

'_I hope he's talking to us'_ I think to myself.

"Yes, I am talking to the two of you," the child blurts out.

'_Did he really just...Never mind'_

"Don't cry," he continues, seemingly referring to Tidus. It had better be Tidus! Tidus walks up closer, trying to get a better look at the child's face. Then, in a bright flash the child disappears, just as quickly as he appeared. Looking around we see that all the people that were frozen in place were once again in full movement, running in panic. Tidus and I look at each other, each just as bewildered as the other.

"Umm…what just happened?" asks Tidus, wording what was on both our minds. He then catches sight of our red-robed man of few words. "Hey, there's Auron."

We finally catch up, slightly out of breath. The man could sure walk fast.

"Hey, not this way!" Tidus says. Auron simply turns around and says, "Look."

Tidus and I look up and see this…floating sphere…bubble, thing. This…thing…looked as big, if not bigger, than the sphere pool we were just in.

"We called it Sin," Auron says, snapping us out of our shock.

"Sin?" Tidus and I question in unison, clearly confused as to what Auron was talking about.

All of a sudden a giant glowing pillar with a huge tentacle crashes into the building next to the floating water sphere. It opens up its 'flaps' to reveal several dozen scales. The scales then shoot off the giant tentacle and, as luck would have it, land on the road in front of us. Then the scales open up to reveal weird blue alien-like fiends.

"Are you kidding me?" I yell.

"Scared?" Auron chides. I reply, "Well I'm not too excited about it."

I look over to see Tidus swatting away a few of the fiends who were taunting him. One lunges at him, causing him to fall backward onto his butt.

'_Hehehe'_ I laugh to myself.

I stand back waiting, knowing Auron has something planned. He walks up to Tidus and pulls out a gleaming crimson blade. The edges of the blade curve like a semi-circle with the middle of the blade carved out in a similar fashion, sort of giving it the look of a hooked edge.

"Take it," he says, "A gift from Jecht."

"My old man?" Tidus asks, slightly taken aback. He grabs the handle as he gets up. Auron let's go of the handle, leaving Tidus to get a hold of sword before it hits the ground, realizing it isn't a light weapon. Tidus goes to swing wildly in front of the scale fiends. The fiends, surprisingly, back up, instinctively knowing that even a blade in untrained hands can still cut. Tidus falls back down once again, still unfamiliar with wielding the sword.

As he gets up again Auron says, "I hope you know how to use it."

Tidus nods his head in confirmation, gritting himself for the oncoming battle. Auron then turns to me and asks, "And I trust you can hold your own?"

"Uh, yeah. No problem!" I reply with gusto. I tighten my gloves and get into a fighting stance. I may not have a weapon right now but my martial arts should be enough to get me through this.

'_Here come those butterflies again…'_

Only this time it's more like an excited nervous.

"These ones don't matter. We cut through!" Auron commands.

To start off I run forward to the first fiend I see and give it a strong jab, followed by a quick right hook. After I give it an uppercut I spin around and drive my foot into its head, finishing it off.

One of its friends lunges at me so I quickly hop back, avoiding the swipe of its claw. I rush towards my assailant and do a quick hop before I kick it into the air. When I land I jump up again and do a spinning kick to the fiends head, knocking it out of the way.

'_Two down…two hundred to go. Great.'_

I quickly look over to Tidus to see how he's holding up. He leaps forward with his sword in the air and swings it down at an angle to the fiend a few feet in front of him, staggering it and not quite killing it. As it stumbled back Auron runs up to finish the job, bringing his blade down, delivering a powerful slash through the middle of the fiend's head.

"Hey! I could've finished it off," Tidus whines.

"Just be thankful it wasn't the other way around," I chime in, narrowly dodging the claw of another fiend out for blood. As soon as the monster jumps back I rush up, drop low and drive my elbow right in its face. As I start to rise up I lift my leg to kick the fiend. I get enough momentum in my kick to launch it backwards in the form of a backward flip.

Auron runs past me, jumps up and cleaves a fiend in two with one slash, instilling fear in any fiends near him, as well as a little in me. One after another we each kill the fiends that stand before us. As I look ahead there doesn't seem to be any shortage of fiends to lay waste to. Almost as if to catch my attention, more scales fall from the sky and land behind as well as in front of us.

To reassure us, Auron says, "Don't go after all of them. Cut the ones that matter and run!"

"Works for me," I reply. Who knows how long we'll be fighting these things. However, I never thought that surviving a scale-fiend apocalypse would be this…fun.

Dashing forward, I do a sweeping kick to the fiend on my left. It's just enough to stagger it so I drive my elbow with enough force to crack its skull, followed by a sickening crunch. It falls to the ground, leaving behind dark blue colored goo on my elbow.

"…ew…"

'_As if this day hasn't been bad enough,'_ I think to myself.

Once the last of the fiends in front of us die we continue our assault forward. When I look back I see several more scales drop down and land on the road, preventing us from going back, at least without a fight.

We run up a broken piece of road and see a giant pillar monster, like the one that was lodged into the building behind us, waiting for us. Auron continues to run forward so Tidus and I follow. We might as well follow, seeing as all the scales behind us will no doubt open up into more fiends. When we reach the creature a strange almost dark energy begins forming above us. It almost looks like a black hole.

That's probably not a good thing.

As it gathers more energy, I ask, "Auron, what is tha…agh!" The energy above us explodes, hitting all of us pretty hard. It certainly doesn't do anything positive for our attitudes either.

"Get out of my town!" shouts Tidus.

"Some can't wait to die!" Auron adds.

"Yeah! What they said!" I chime in. Ho ho, I bet that one scared him.

The creature replies to our threats by charging up another energy attack.

"Scatter!" Auron shouts.

We all shoot off in different directions, trying to space ourselves as much as we can from each other. At least this way not everyone will get hit. The only drawback to this plan is the fact that this road is on a bridge with walls, which means there isn't much room to work with already. Add to that the creature takes up quite a bit of room along with all the dormant scales lying around.

As soon as we reach the limits of our surroundings the vortex of energy blasts out again, hitting us all.

I've read up on magic before but this strain eludes me. My guess is some type of dark magic but it's still so unfamiliar from anything I've read.

Surprisingly, it seems that it isn't as strong as the last two attacks.

'_Maybe it gets weaker every time it uses that attack,'_ I ponder. _'Anyway,' _

"We need to end this battle quickly before it takes us out. I don't think we'll be able to dodge its attack." I shout to Tidus and Auron.

"Agreed" Auron replies as he bends his knees, looking like he's going into a state of concentration.

I feel a wave of energy building up around him. Some more fiends emerge from their dormant scales, sensing something odd about the air around them.

Boy, I wouldn't want to be them right now.

Auron stands upright again and jumps up. It's now that I can feel a huge surge of energy build up around him. I get ready to brace myself, unsure of what exactly is about to happen. He turns his blade downward and plunges it into the road. Immediately following this is several fiery explosions engulfing all the newly emerged fiends as well as the big pillar creature. All the smaller fiends die while I see a few of the tentacles on the bigger creature shake just before they disappear.

'_Hmm…interesting.'_

I run towards the creature, jumping up and landing a spinning kick to its…body I guess you could call it.

"Huh, squishy," I deduct. I follow up with a strong jab and then a crossing punch, damaging it further. As I jump back I notice a few more of its tentacles disappear.

"Hey guys!" I shout out, "I think its tentacles on top disappear whenever takes enough damage. I'll wager this thing will bite it when they're all gone."

Just as I finish the creature starts gathering up more energy.

'_Not again,'_ I complain in my head.

When it releases the energy I notice that it's even weaker than the last time, even though I'm pretty drained myself. I notice Tidus is starting to get the same boost in energy that Auron had just a while ago.

He cartwheels forward, does a spinning flip in the air and slashes his sword down on the creature. Several more tentacles disappear, which means it must've been a pretty strong hit.

"Nice one Tidus. Just a little more and this thing should drop," I say. Running towards the creature I ready myself to give it a few good hits.

Just as I'm within range of the creature it starts gathering up more energy. This time however, the concentration of energy looks much darker. It must be hoping to end this fight with one last attack.

"Oh no you don't!" I grunt as I start pummeling the creature with a flurry of punches. I feverishly work to get off as many punches and kicks as I can before it releases that attack. Just as I'm out of energy Tidus and Auron run up to attack, realizing the creature's end is near.

Tidus winds up, Auron lifts his sword high in the air, and I do one final spin.

'_This is it…'_

"EAT THIS!!!" I yell as all our attacks hit the creature at the same time.

I fall backwards, panting hard from exhausting my energy on that last barrage of attacks. Looking up, I manage to crack a smile as I see the energy above us slowly dissipating as the creature dies along with it. Its body starts to gleam as small explosions envelop it. It then turns a dark color as its main tentacle falls limp, signifying death.

Auron then continues running down the road, leaving Tidus and I to play catch up again. I start to slowly jog, still slightly out of breath, when I notice that Tidus is lagging behind, messing with some pedestal with a clear blue sphere in it.

"Hey, what are you doing? If we don't hurry we'll get left behind again," I say trying to spur him on.

"I was just checking out this thing. It's called a Traveler's Sphere. I just touched it and I feel full of energy again. Even my wounds have healed. Go ahead and try it. You could probably use it, you look pretty tired," Tidus explained.

"Yeah, I've heard of those," I say as I touch the sphere. A feeling of warmth returns to my body as all my limbs regain strength. My lungs fill with oxygen, so I'm no longer out of breath, and my mind seems more focused.

"All right, fully charged and ready to go. Let's get going!" I say cheerfully as I slap my friend on the back and turn to run in Auron's direction.

As we're running we head by a large sized building with a flickering image of Jecht on it.

Tidus turns to the image and mumbles mostly to himself, "What are you laughing at, old man?"

"You say something?" I ask.

"Nah, it's nothing," Tidus replies in a slightly melancholy tone.

…

"Hey, I just realized something." I blurt out.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I didn't get to pull off a super-flashy move like you and Auron back there. Now I'm jealous…" I say jokingly.

"Ha ha, yeah, well, maybe we should get out of here first. Then you can show off to Auron and me,"

"I suppose you're right…" I say in mock dejection.

When we finally catch up to Auron, Tidus shouts out, "Auron! Let's get out of here." I also chime I, "Yeah, we probably shouldn't stay in one place too long…"

"We're expected," Auron cuts in. Tidus and I look at each stumped.

"Expected?" I begin to question the man. Before I can get a straight answer Auron resumes running down the road. As we get further down the road more scales drop down.

'_Geez, how many scales does that thing have?'_

Not only do they block our path but they also prevent any way of backtracking. I can't even see where the wave of these things ends. Yep, we're boned. Without much of a choice, we ready our weapons, bodies, and minds for another prolonged battle of survival.

We start taking down the scale fiends pretty easily this time around. Either they're getting weaker or perhaps we're getting stronger…I'm hoping it's the latter.

Tidus runs forward and swings his sword across striking a fiend through its body, killing it instantly.

"Hey, looks like you're getting the hang of it finally," I chide Tidus.

"Hah! You haven't seen anything yet," he replies.

My turn. I dash ahead and do a small hop, spin around and swing my leg, hitting a fiend square in its face. It gets hit with enough force to send it flying to the left and into another fiend, which also gets knocked out. Auron, deciding to watch the back so as not to get ambushed, delivers his own form of punishment in the form of a giant blade slicing the fiends apart. Those poor fiends…

Seeing as how we weren't making any progress, Auron assesses our surroundings, looking for some sort of advantage or angle we could use.

"Hmph, this could be bad," he says as he scans the area. Once he looks forward again he sees a container hanging over the edge of the bridge.

"That! Knock it down!" Auron suddenly shouts.

"What?" Tidus questions.

"Trust me, you'll see," Auron merely responds. Knowing Auron for years has taught me how wise the man is and, unlike Tidus, knows what he's talking about.

"Okay, got it!" I reply. As I run up to the container, I start to notice that, yeah, it's metallic. This could potentially be very painful for my fist. Heck, my foot would even feel it. I wind up, aiming for the floating connector, to give it a good punch, all the while thinking in the back of my mind, 'Ooh, this is going to hurt.'

As I make contact with the hovering connector, I'm delighted to find out that it's not as hard as I thought it would be. It actually felt somewhat hollow, which would make easy fodder to a sword. However, I still felt a twinge of pain zoom through my hand and up my arm.

I rub my fist as I jump back, looking for another angle at which to attack this connector. Auron, who takes notice of this, shouts out, "Zeek, Tidus and I will take care of the container. With your speed you focus on keeping these fiends away from us. Can you handle that?"

"Sure, no problem." I reply

I notice in the corner of my eye a fiend trying to sneak up behind Tidus. I sprint to fiend and lower my shoulder to tackle it out of the way. Once it's clear of Tidus I get as low as I can to the ground the ready myself for an uppercut. As my fist makes contact with the fiends' jaw I can feel it almost disintegrate, along with sending it flying in the air.

When Tidus turns around to see what all the commotion is I just smile and say, "No worries, I got your back!"

Tidus nods back and turns to face the container. Both he and Auron continue slashing and hacking away at the container, with each hit causing the connector to lose power. Finally, with one last slash from Auron the connector explodes, causing the container hanging on the edge to fall off the edge, all the while spewing fire.

'_I see now. That was a fuel tanker.'_

I look over the edge of the bridge wall to see a giant cloud of fumes under us. If that tanker meets with those fumes, the results could be…explosive.

With a deafening explosion the building housing Jecht's image starts to fall down toward us. Tidus and I run out of the way, next to Auron. Unfortunately, the numerous scale fiends that were in front of us…are no longer in front of us. The building gradually starts to sink. With our only means of escape from this nightmare steadily falling this was our only chance.

"Go," Auron says.

Without even having to think Tidus and I immediately start running on top of the sinking building. As we run across several small explosions block our path, as if this wasn't difficult enough. Well, nobody said this would be EASY, now did they?

As the edge of the bridge came into view, it meant that our salvation was close at hand, too. With every ounce of strength left in our bodies, Tidus and I make the leap to the bridge…our salvation, hopefully.

We manage to just barely cling on to a piece of metal hanging out from the bridge. Auron walks up to the edge and looks down at us.

"Eh, a little help?" I shout up, almost in a plea, as I feel my grip gradually slipping.

Without a word, he continues to look at us, until the giant sphere of water appears behind him.

'_Great, now what?'_

Tidus, getting impatient from hanging for his life, shouts out, "Auron!"

Auron turns to look at the giant sphere as it starts morphing into a giant hole which begins sucking in everything around us into it.

"You are sure?" He asks the thing in the sky.

'_????'_

Unbeknownst to my friend and I we are actually being slowly sucked into the hole in the sky, along with all of Zanarkand. Finally, as Tidus and I manage to pull ourselves up onto the bridge with the last of our strength, Auron grabs Tidus by the collar, lifts him up, and says, "This is it,"

I look up from the ground, still out of breath and confused as to what Auron is talking about. He continues, "This is your story. It all begins here." As soon as he finishes his last word Tidus is sucked into the hole almost instantly.

"Tidus! No! Auron what are you doing? How could you…why…" My mind races as I quickly stand up. My thoughts jumbled, trying to figure out what in the world is going on in this man's head.

'_Why did he let Tidus get sucked up into that hole?_

_Is he going to do the same to me?_

_Was this his purpose this whole time?_

_Why is this happening?'_

I fall to my knees, shaking, unable to comprehend this situation.

"Auron…what's going on?" I plead.

"All will be explained. Now is not the time," He says as he turns to me. "This is your story as well…"

And with that the world around me goes completely white.


	3. Chapter 3 A Warm Welcome

**Disclaimer: I do not own any creative property belonging to FFX or Square-Enix. I do however claim credit for original characters and ideas.**

**Chapter 3 – A Warm Welcome**

"_Zeek! Dinner's ready!"_

"_Coming, dad! Hey, uh, Tidus…do you wanna come over for dinner? My dad's a really good cook and he's really nice too."_

"_Hmm… I don't know…"_

"_Oh… okay then…"_

"_Hee hee, I was just kidding, Zeek! Let me go ask my mom first then I'll be right back."_

What…what's going on?

'_Knock knock' _

"_Hmm? Whaddya want?"_

"_Um, hi. Is Tidus home?"_

"_What? Who's looking for him?"_

"_Um…my… m-my name's Zeek."_

"_Hah! I'm just messin' with ya, kid. Of course he's home! He's probably of crying in his room or something… Hey Tidus! Some kid named Zeek's at the door for ya!"_

Hey, I remember this…

'_Sniff, sniff' "Huh, Zeek? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be having dinner right now?_

"_I was waiting for you to come over. You said you'd go ask and be right back."_

"_Oh yeah… my dad wouldn't let me go. He never let's me do anything."_

"_Was that him that answered the door?"_

"_Yeah. Was he a jerk to you too?"_

"_No, he was kinda funny. He scared me at first but then he seemed nice."_

"_What? You must be talking about someone else because MY dad isn't nice at all."_

"_Hey! I heard that!"_

"_Uh oh…"_

"_Looks like you're in trouble now, ha ha."_

This was when I first met Jecht. Ever since then…wait a minute, why am I seeing this? Where am I? Hey, Tidus! Auron! Somebody! Everything's going white again…wait, who's that?

"_Who cares if the tournament's named after him? In my opinion the world's better off without him!"_

"_How can you say that? He's your father…"_

"_Yeah, well, he sure never acted like one."_

"_Tidus…"_

"_Just forget it, let's get to the stadium."_

This was… the day of the tournament, right before the match. It's funny; even to this day I still can't convince Tidus that Jecht really did care for him. He did have a hard time showing it, though. On the outside it almost looked… painful for him. Like, he was almost embarrassed to show Tidus that he really loved him.

Ah, there's that light again…

…

"Is it… is this really…"

As my vision came into focus a completely decimated city surrounded by water lies before me.

"Zanarkand?"

A chill runs up my spine as I look around. There's not a soul to be seen for miles, my only companion being the blood-red sunset.

'_No… is this when… when that hole in the sky, er, Sin, sucked everything up? Is this all that's left?'_

Buildings lay submerged underwater as roads lay broken on mounds of dirt and debris. The eerie glow of the sunset gives everything a frightening red glow. It's almost too much to take in. My skin begins crawling.

"Great, now what? Huh?"

My feet started feeling wet. When I look down I see the water level rising. I quickly dash to a nearby submerged building and jump onto it, trying to stay above the rising water. Despite my efforts the water continue to rise. I climb up higher on the building hoping the advancing water will soon stop.

'_There's not much room left to climb,'_ I think as I look down at the rising water.

Once I finally reach the top I look down to see if the water has stopped rising. Much to my dismay the water continues climbing up, only now it looks like it's rising faster than before.

'_Come on, this has to end eventually. I mean the building isn't even sinking!'_

Then all of a sudden, the water instantly rises up and swallows me. I start swimming for the top but I can't tell how far away I am from it. Pressure starts building up in my lungs.

'_What the…'_

Normally I don't have any problems holding my breath underwater, seeing as I'm a blitzball player but this was different. It was like all the oxygen was being pulled from my lungs. The pain rapidly builds as I struggle and flail, trying to reach the surface.

In a bright flash I finally break the water's surface, gasping for air as my lungs were screaming for it.

'_Was… was that just a dream?'_

As I survey my surroundings I see the vast blue ocean in front of me.

"Ugh, great, more water…"

Turning around I see a bright sandy beach surrounded by lush vegetation and small rocky cliffs. Behind the beach lie several broken down towers, leaning ever so slightly. They must be old what with all the plants growing on them. I start swimming towards the beach when I suddenly feel something brush past my leg in the water. Looking around, I don't see anything. It would be pretty hard to miss something in this water, too. It's clear as glass. Maybe it was just my imagination? Who knows? Weirder things have happened today. Anyway, off I go to the beach. As I look down at the sea floor I see all kinds of colors. From the waving green plants to the bright yellow and red coral, this place is almost surreal.

Just as I'm about to touch down in the shallows I feel something shoot past me again, this time nearly knocking me over.

'_Okay, I know I didn't imagine that. There's got to be something in here.'_

Looking around in the water again still does no good. There's nothing there. As I turn to walk towards the beach a green aquatic creature jumps out of the water and leaps over my head, blocking the way to the beach. The creature looks like some of mutated fish, with its gleaming green scales, sharp yellow fins, and glaring eyes. It unleashes a terrible screech before jumping back in the water, swimming towards me.

Just before it gets in range I reach down with my hands and push myself off the creature's head, hopping right over it. I hastily scramble my way towards the beach, stumbling the whole way.

'_If I can just get out of the water…'_ I repeat through my head. '_Being aquatic, it shouldn't be as swift out of water.'_

Almost there… ten feet… five feet… The creature jumps out of the water, this time aiming to land right on top of me. Without looking I continue to run as the shadow of the creature above me gets bigger and bigger.

'_NOW!'_

I dive forward and out of the water with all my might, landing with a flop on the beach. _'Ow.'_ Just as I turn around thinking to see a giant green fish ready to land on me, a ball whizzes by and knocks the creature back into the water. Looking back at where the ball came from I see a man with bright red hair running towards me. The first thing that strikes me about this man is a large piece of hair sticking straight up in front. Around his hair was a bright blue headband. He had on yellow pants and a yellow top, each with several belts and buttons. Underneath his yellow pants was a pair of blue pants. He almost looks like a blitzball player, but now was definitely not the time to be wondering about that.

Not happy about being hit in the face with a ball, the fish creature jumps out of the water again to come finish what it started. As I try to scurry backwards a sharp pain shoots through my hands, causing me to fall back down. I quickly glance down to see several cuts in my gloves with blood seeping through. Looking forward again I bring my knees close to my chest. Just as the creature is about to attack I launch my legs forward, hitting it square in the face and knocking it on its back a few feet away.

Out of breath, I scramble to my feet in an attempt to create as much distance between the creature and myself as I can. I glance down at my hands again, _'Where did these cuts come from? Was it…yeah, when I leaped over that thing? Pfft, stupid scales… I probably shouldn't do that again.'_

Not willing to let its prey escape, the creature gets back up and trudges towards me, ignoring the red haired man shouting at it, "Hey ugly! Over here!"

I immediately notice that it does move much slower now that it's out of the water.

"Well, no point in going down without a fight," I mutter.

Running up to the creature, I do a jump kick to the creature's head, momentarily stunning it. Seeing this, I spin around and deliver another kick, this time to the creature's rib cage. I jump back to catch my breath when I see the red haired man throw another ball at the creature.

'_Was that a blitzball?'_ I think to myself.

The creature then starts to slowly slink back into the water, realizing I wasn't worth the effort to kill. When it finally jumps back into the water the red haired man walks over to me and says in a cheerful tone,

"Ha ha ha, looks like we showed him who's boss, ya?"

He had a strong accent to accompany a huge grin on his face.

"Heh… (huff)… yeah," I replied back, still trying to catch my breath. "Any idea what that thing was?"

"It looked like one of those sahagin fiends. Those guys tend to hang out in deeper water so it's pretty strange why it attacked you so close to the beach. You okay and everything?"

"Um…" I mumble as I look down at my hands. "Yeah… yeah, nothing serious."

"Wait a minute, let me take a look at your hands," The man asked, a look of concern spreading across his face.

"What? Oh, it's no big deal, I just…Hey!" I say as the man grabs my hands and turns them over, seeing my torn bloody gloves.

"Whoa, looks like he got you pretty good, ya?" The man says.

"Yeah, I guess so," I reply, grinning sheepishly.

"All right, let's get you back to the village and have these looked at. Can't have you walking around with an injury like this. Come on," the man insists as he starts dragging me along by the wrist.

"U-um, all right." I blurt out, surprised by the bluntness of this man's help.

The man let's go of my wrist and turns around and asks, "So what's your name?"

"I'm Zeek. I should thank you for your help earlier." I reply.

"Zeek, huh? I'm Wakka, nice to meet you. I saw you floating down here from the village so I thought I should go and see if you were all right. Looks like I showed up in the knick of time, ya?"

"Ha ha, yeah." I say laughing. We continue walking down the path on our way to the village. As we walk up a slope I ask Wakka, "So, where exactly are we?"

"This is Besaid Island. It's a small island at the southern most part of Spira. It's also home to the Besaid Aurochs."

"What are the Besaid Aurouchs?" I question Wakka.

"It's the local blitzball team. Speaking of which, you look like you're dressed in a blitz uniform. You play?" Wakka replies back.

"Yeah! I play for the Zanarkand Abes."

Wakka's face shifts to confusion. "Uh, what team did you say you play for?"

"The Zanarkand Abes. Is… that strange?" I ask, starting to get confused myself.

"Considering Zanarkand's been lying in ruins for the past thousand years, yeah it is," Wakka says, "Are you sure you didn't hit your head out there in the ocean, brudda?"

"No, I don't think so," I reply back while rubbing my head to make sure I didn't have a bruise. "Wait, you said… Zanarkand is in ruins, right? Can you tell me what happened to it?"

"You should know, brudda. It got destroyed by Sin," Wakka replied.

My mind clicked once I heard 'Sin'.

"But… I just saw Sin attack Zanarkand not that long ago. How could that have happened a thousand years ago?"

"Sounds to me like Sin really did a number on your head. It must be the toxin," Wakka says.

"Toxin?" I repeat in confusion.

"You see, when someone gets too close to Sin they sometimes take in some of its 'toxin'. It makes your head all goofy-like. At least that's what I've heard. Yeah, that may explain why you think you're from Zanarkand." Wakka replies.

'_If the Zanarkand that Wakka says was destroyed a thousand years ago is my Zanarkand, then that means…'_

"But no worries, I'm sure you'll get better in no time. Now let's keep going."

'_I was sent a thousand years into the future? Wait a minute, how would that even be possible? But... what if… what if what I saw in that… dream was…'_

"Right behind you."

'_True?'_

As Wakka and I continue walking down the path my mind starts to wander, more specifically to Zanarkand. It's hard to take in the fact that your hometown is supposedly 'destroyed'. Coupled with the fact that I have no idea where Besaid stands in relation to Zanarkand only adds to the frustration. I guess Wakka would know. He seems pretty sure that Zanarkand is no longer a habitable city. But if what he says is true and Zanarkand is just a pile of rubble, what do I do now?

"Hey! Get your head outta the clouds, brudda!"

"Huh?" I blurt out, snapping back to reality.

"I was telling you about this big blitzball tournament being held in the few days in Luca. If you're up to it and feeling all right I'd like you to come along. Maybe you'd recognize someone there and join back up with your blitz team, ya?" Wakka explains.

"Uh, yeah, sure," I reply, not really thinking about what he just said. I feel… lost. I don't really know what to do next. I want to say, 'Just wait it out. Something will come along and you'll know what to do,' but I don't want to just sit and wait. I feel like I should be out looking for Tidus and Auron.

"Say Wakka, how big is Luca?" I ask.

"Luca is the second largest city in Spira. It's the home of the blitz stadium so there's usually a large amount of people around. Why?" he asks back.

"Before I wound up here I was with two of my friends when Sin attacked. I think from the looks of it we got separated." I explain.

"Well, no worries! Luca's so big I'm sure someone there will have seen them, " Wakka says, full of cheer again.

"Thanks, Wakka," I reply back as we continue walking down the path.

When I look around I start to notice how beautiful this island is. The rocky wall to our right is covered in plants and moss and the path's edges are covered in flowers. As I look ahead I can see and hear the crashing of a waterfall.

'_Almost like a tropical paradise,'_ I think to myself.

My eye then lands on one of the decayed towers. My curiosity gets the better of me as I ask Wakka, "What are those towers from?"

"Those were from an ancient city long ago. You see, back then there were hundreds of machina cities." Wakka starts explaining.

"Machina?" I ask.

"Machines. The people in these cities would goof off all day and let the machina do all the work. So, as a punishment, Sin came along and destroyed all the machina cities," Wakka continues. "But what I don't understand is why we gotta suffer because of the mistakes some people did in the past. Still, we must always atone for our sins. That is important."

"Yeah, it almost doesn't seem fair." I reply, feeling a twinge of guilt.

'_Could Zanarkand have been partly responsible for this? I mean, we did use a lot of machines.'_

As we reached the top of a hill I could almost see the entire island. It all looked so green and vibrant. The sea sparkled as the sun's reflection danced off the small repeating waves that would lightly crash into the bright yellow beach. If not for the throbbing pain in my hands I would think I was dreaming.

"The village is just down the slope," Wakka says, snapping me out of my reverie. Just before we get to the entrance of the village Wakka pulls me aside, "Hey, do you remember the prayer?"

'_Wha…?'_

"Umm…no, I think I forgot it," I say, clearly lying through my teeth. Thankfully Wakka didn't suspect otherwise and went on to show me this prayer. He took a step backwards with one foot, lifted both his arms straight out, and then cupped his hands to form a circle before bowing.

"Now you try," Wakka says. I take a step back, lift my arms and form a circle with my cupped hands before bowing.

"Looks like Sin's toxin didn't get you that bad after all," Wakka says, "that looked pretty good."

'_Yay me.'_

"Thanks," I reply back.

"Now, I'll go get someone to take care of your hands. You just wait in that hut right there," Wakka says pointing to a hut in the middle right of the village, "I've gotta check in with someone real quick so I'll be back in a few minutes."

As Wakka ran off I turned to head into the hut.

'_Is this it?'_ I ask myself.

There were only about five or six huts in the entire village and they were all pretty small. I'd be willing to bet my bedroom alone was bigger than any of these huts. It was definitely a strange sight. As I walked through the curtains of the hut I was surprised to find out that it was even smaller inside. From the look of it the hut could probably house about two people, three max. There was a small oven off to the left with several shelves filled with jars, cans, and spices. Fabric covered the walls, giving it a very elegant look, if not sloppy. It looks like the fabric was tossed willy-nilly all over the place with no rhyme or reason. Anyway I'm no interior designer and I'm really in no position to be judging someone's house, especially since I have don't have a clue as to who lives here.

I walk over to the couch and sit down. It definitely feels good to just kick back and relax after all that's happened. Looking down at my tattered gloves triggers memories from Zanarkand. I close my eyes and start to drift away.

…

In my head I flash back to two years in the past.

It was my birthday as well as the day before I would start practicing with the Zanarkand Abes, one of the best blitz teams in Zanarkand. There was a big party thrown at my house to celebrate the two events. It seemed like the whole neighborhood was there, too. The party ran on so late that I almost missed practice the following day, or should I say later that day since the party went on well through the night to the early morning. Anyway, I had gotten these gloves as a gift. They were from Tidus. He was still too young to join the Abes back then. Even though he put on a convincing smile when he gave these to me, I could tell it was really eating at him. Next to Tidus, I'll be the first to admit that he's an all around better blitzer than I am. He was back then, too. I had managed to convince him to tryout that day along with me even though he didn't meet the minimum age requirement. When the head coach found out he was too young he almost ripped poor Tidus a new one. Before he let Tidus go, however, he said that he was one of the best tryouts he had seen in a long time and that he should definitely tryout next year when he's old enough. Even though he was still too young, Tidus had hoped that the coach would give him a spot on the team, despite his age. He went homing nearly in tears.

That's the funny thing about Tidus: if he doesn't get his way, most of the time he'll start to cry. He did it a lot when we were younger but I think that may have been due to his upbringing, i.e. Jecht. Despite not making the team that day, Tidus still showed up at the party, much to my relief. That night Tidus and I made a promise: No matter what happens, we always got each other's back. After that Tidus gave me these blitzing gloves as a gift for making the team. That's why its kind of hard to see these gloves all torn up. I've worn them for every blitz game and every practice session since then. They're almost like a symbol of our friendship. At least, to me they are. 'I wonder if Wakka knows where I can get these fixed up,' I ask myself.

As my eyes slowly open I see this face staring right back at me.

"Uh…whoa!" I yell as I jump up and back.

"Oh!" The other person yells from fright.

"What, what were you doing?" I ask as I catch my breath.

"Ha ha ha, I was seeing if you were awake." She responds.

"Ha, well I am now." I laugh back. Looking at this person I see that it's a young woman, probably about a year younger than me. Her hair was light brown and went down to her shoulders with a one lock covered in beads. She wore this white top that looked like mix between a tank top and a kimono. A yellow belt with elaborate floral patterns covered most of her midsection with a big bow in the back. Below that was a purple dress with more floral patterns that covered up her black boots.

"Hello there, I'm Yuna," she greeted while bowing. Her voice was so gentle and welcoming. "You are Zeek, correct?"

"Y-yes," I manage to stutter, my face starting to feel slightly warmer now.

"Wakka told me that your hands were injured and asked me to heal them. May I take a look?" She asked.

"Y-yeah, here," I say placing my hands, palms up, in front of her.

"I'll just have to take these gloves off first," Yuna says as she gently removes the gloves. A twinge of pain courses through my hands as the gloves slowly come off.

"Hmm, these cuts look pretty deep. Can you tell me how you got them?"

"Yeah, It was from a sahagin. I put my hands on its head and pushed off, jumping over it. I didn't realize they could do this with their scales though," referring to my cuts.

"Yes, that is a bit strange. Anyway, let's get started healing these wounds," Yuna says.

As she closes her eyes a bright light appears around my hands. A feeling of soothing coolness flows through my hands as the blood slowly disappears.

"Wow," I mutter in awe, "I've never seen magic like this first hand… uh, no pun intended."

Yuna giggles as the light dims, "Yes, this is white magic."

I clench and stretch my fists, making sure they're fighting fight.

"So, how do they feel?" Yuna asks.

"Good as new!" I reply happily.

"Right. If I recall, white magic is mainly used for its healing and restorative properties," I state.

"That's exactly right!" Yuna replies smiling. "It sounds like you've studied magic before."

"Yeah, I used to read a lot about magic. It always sounded so interesting and fun to use, but I've never actually used any," I grin sheepishly.

"You know, I know someone who knows a great deal about magic. She and I could help you learn some magic if you'd like," Yuna offers.

"Really? Oh, wow. Yes, that'd be great!" I reply excitedly. "Are you sure it wouldn't be too much trouble?"

"No, not at all. It shouldn't take too long to teach you the basics. You seem to have a fundamental understanding of magic already. Now you just need to put it into practice," Yuna explains.

"Thank you, Yuna," I say with a wide grin.

"You're very welcome," Yuna replies with another giggle. "I'll go talk to Lulu and see if we can get started tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Sounds good," I reply back.

I catch a glimpse of my gloves lying next to me on the couch. As Yuna turns to leave the hut I quickly ask, "Yuna, before you go, do you know where I could get my gloves fixed?"

"Oh, why yes I do. Next door to your right is where all the fabric in Besaid is woven. I'm sure they'd be able to repair your gloves," Yuna replies. "Shall I take them over there for you?"

"No, that's okay. You've done enough for me already. Thank you, though."

"Okay," Yuna smiled as she walked out of the hut.

As soon as she leaves my mind once again wanders back to Zanarkand, back to where this all began.


	4. Chapter 4 Discovery

**Disclaimer: I do not own any creative property belonging to FFX or Square-Enix. I do however claim credit for original characters and ideas.**

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_Hello again FFX fanfic fans. I'm really sorry that I haven't posted a new chapter for a long time. I've been busy with school finishing up and I'll be getting ready to look for a job but things have slowed down a bit so Ch. 5 shouldn't take nearly as long to post as this one did. As you can see this chapter is pretty long. I basically wanted to push the story along a little faster than in previous chapters because I think Zeek needs to get off Besaid and start his journey throughout Spira._

_Anyway, thank you everyone who is reading this and I hope you enjoy it!_

**

* * *

Chapter 4 - Discovery**

"Keep your focus and try again!" demands a cold female voice.

"_(pant),_ Right," I reply back, running low on 'focus'. I once again start concentrating my magic energy into a physical form. My goal: a barrier that can decrease the strength of physical might. Lulu and Yuna call it a 'Protect' spell. I have to say, this is a lot harder than I thought it'd be.

When I first started practicing yesterday, I was barely able to make the smallest fire spell. Once I finally got the hang of that and a few other basic black magic spells, Yuna, asked what other kind of magic I'd be interested in learning next. Here comes the flashback… (wee)…

"I'd really like to learn spells that could protect others. I know there are spells that can weaken the abilities of fiends but I think I'd rather learn spells that can strengthen my allies," I explain.

"Then what you wish to learn is primarily Green Magic," Lulu starts explaining. "It allows the caster to aid the party through defensive enchantments, such as decreasing the amount of physical damage one takes. There are also Green Magic spells that hinder the enemy, but let's focus on the spells that will aid others." Yuna jumps in to add, "These spells would be Protect and Shell. Protect will lower physical damage and Shell will lower magical damage done."

"Perfect!" I grin cheerfully, "So, where do I start?"

"Begin by concentrating your mana, your magic energy, into creating a physical carrier, that can block any attack," Lulu says.

"Alright, here goes," I close my eyes and begin concentrating. Basically all I do is think about drawing mana from every part of my body into a single point, for instance, my hands. The hands are the most common place to exert mana from because they are the closest area on the body from which mana can be exerted. Once I had gathered my mana, I threw my hand forward, channeling all my mana into and out through it. A small light shoots out and quickly expands into a small circular wall about two feet in diameter.

"Ha ha, I did! How was that?" I ask excitedly.

"Not bad! Exclaims Yuna. Lulu nods her head, "It was a little small, though. Try again and this time aim to make it larger."

"Okay," I close my eyes, focusing on gathering more mana than before. In my mind I keep thinking, _'Bigger, got to make it bigger. Big enough to block any attack.'_ I throw out my hand again, unleashing all my built up mana. Another small light shoots forward and transforms into a bigger round shield, this one about four feet wide.

"Better, but I want to see it bigger still. Give it everything you got this time. Don't hold back," Lulu demanded.

"Lulu?" Yuna questioned, unsure of the unusually arduous demeanor of her friend.

"Don't worry, Yuna, she's right. I've got to give it all I've got. Otherwise I'll never get stronger," I say. Yeah I can talk the big game but it means nothing if I can't turn out results. For a third time I conjure up my mana. I quickly gather up more than the previous two times.

'_Just a little more…'_ I keep telling myself, struggling to gather any more mana.

Before I started any training, Lulu warned me about possible side effects of charging up mana. She said," You need to be careful when poweringup your magic. If you don't charge up enough mana, you spell will be ineffective. This is, at the most, harmless but you won't be able to protect your comrades. Conversely, if you gather up too much mana, you can lose control and the conseqences will be dire. So, you need to find an effective and efficient balance to this. I can't tell you what that balance is, though. It's something you need to find out for yourself."

'_Almost…there…'_ I'm getting close to my limit. I can feel it. _'... now!'_

"Hyyaaa!" I shout as I unleash all my stored up magic, projecting a gigantic glowing blue barrier that must have been at least ten feet high and ten feet wide. "Woo…" I say, exasperated, as the barrier quickly dissipates away. I fall to my knees, unable to support them after that last spell.

Yuna runs up to me, "Are you okay Zeek?"

"Yeah…just a little drained is all," I reply, slightly out of breath. Lulu walks up and, much to my surprise, smiles! "Now THAT is what I wanted to see. If you can put that much heart into every spell you cast, you shouldn't have to worry about anyone, including yourself getting hurt." The normally stoic woman seemed to finally be warming up to me. It makes me feel even better than she acknowledges my magic. I got to see a demonstration of her magical might against an unfortunate Garuda that happened to fly just a little too close to the village the other day. Let's just say its corpse didn't have time to touch the ground before all its pyreflies drifted away.

"We can continue training after a small break," Lulu said as she turned to walk back toward the village. We had been practicing on the outskirts of the village, just in case something went awry. However, I don't think much can get out of hand when practicing a Protect spell.

Anyway, that's how we got to where we are now. I am once again drained of magic but with the addition of one yelly and demanding Lulu. Fun times. Now she's not scolding me to make me feel bad, she's pushing me to my absolute, and I mean ABSOLUTE limits. It's the only way I'll improve my magical capabilities in a short amount of time. I guess that's what I get for wanting to impress the black mage. Since I've gotten use to casting the Protect spell it's now time to practice the Shell spell. Shell focuses on reducing the damage caused by magic attacks. The basic principle of casting it is essentially the same as casting Protect. The only difference is concentrating on blocking magical damage instead of physical damage. The actual spell itself also differs a bit in appearance. While the general look of a Shell spell is usually the same, a reddish orange bubble, there are ways of manipulating its shape and appearance.

When Lulu told me this I got a little excited because I've always been a little creative along with being a blitzball player. But first things first, I'll have to master the spell before I starting making any changes.

The while routine of casting magic is starting to become a little easier the more I practice. I'm noticing I don't have to gather as much mana as I used to, which in turn allows me to cast magic faster.

"Hah!" I yell as yet another Shell spell is cast. A barrier big enough to cover a large human appears.

"Good, that'll be all for today," Lulu says, "Yuna, let's go." Yuna nods, "Yes," You see, Yuna is training to become a summoner. From what Yuna told me, summoners call upon entities known as Aeons and join with them in battle against Sin. Apparently, Yuna's dad was also a summoner. She said he gave his life fighting Sin. Now that I've think of it, Yuna hasn't mentioned anything about her mother. Heck, I haven't seen or heard anything about Wakka's or Lulu's parent for that matter. I mean, the village isn't that big so it's not like they could be hiding. Unless…. It's some conspiracy! No, I'm kidding.

Anyway, Yuna said that in a few days she would be tested to see if she would become a real summoner and not just an apprentice summoner. It's strange, though. Yuna's usually so bright and happy but when it comes to her training she becomes somewhat…distant. She does take it pretty serious, but still. I suppose she has to if she's going to take on Sin. If she does become a summoner, she, Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri will leave Besaid to start a pilgrimage.

Oh, I haven't told you about Kimahri yet, have I? He's what the people here call a Ronso. Basically, Ronso are hulking lion-like creatures with blue fur and dress in what you could consider tribal clothing, which is kind of odd considering they live on Mount Gagazet. I've been told it's always snowing up there so the Ronso are either crazy tough or just plain crazy; I'm not sure. Each one is supposed to have a horn on their head, too, though Kimahri's horn is broken off. He doesn't talk much so I'm not sure how or why it's missing. I suppose I could ask someone later, but I should get back to training.

"Hey, is it all right if I stay here a little longer to practice?" I ask Lulu. She turns back around and says, "I suppose you can. Just try not to overdo it. The fiends around here may not be all that menacing but they'll still go after someone who's weakened."

"Okay, I'll be careful," I reply, smiling as I wave them goodbye, "Have fun!" Yuna smiles back while Lulu turns back toward the village. I look up to the sky and look at the sun's position and think_, 'It's definitely harder to tell time here. You'd think there was at least a clock around here. All this 'no machina' business is a real bummer. Well, back to practice.'_

As I focus my mind to casting a spell, I start thinking about how I can go about changing the appearance of the spell. _'Hmm, how about instead of a sphere, I change it to a bunch of triangles, or pyramids even,'_ I think, playing around with the idea. I begin gathering up my magic, concentrating on making it appear as two pyramids. When I cast Shell, the sphere slowly changes into two pyramids pointing towards each other, eventually combining. "Ooo, pointy. Now, how about a cylinder?" Again, the pyramids morph, but this time into a large cylinder.

"Hee hee, this is kind of fun!" I say, talking to myself, "Now, let's mess around with Protect."

After a few changes I alter the original plain blue barrier to a shield, a wall of trees, and even an old-fashion shield I've seen in old texts. The possibilities are endless!

As the hours pass, I notice the sun getting low in the sky. _"(pant)_… I think I'll call it a day." Turning to walk back to the village, I hear a rustling of leaves to my left. A blue Flan comes sliding out from the brush. When it finally notices me it wastes not time casting a Water spell at me. Quickly jumping out of the way, I prepare my own spell: a Thunder spell. This strain of Flan is known as Water Flan. Being a water-elemental fiend it can cast Water. Also, it means it's weak against the element of lightning, making it flubbery fodder for my Thunder spell. "Eat this!" I shout, casting my Thunder spell. The Water Flan slides to the left, just barely dodging the bolt. "Crap, try it again…" I say, casting another Thunder, this one backed with a little more mana. The bolt hits the fiend dead on, killing it instantly. Nice.

"Hey, not bad!"

I turn to see Wakka walking toward me. "You think so?" I ask. "Yeah, you've gotten pretty good with your magic, considering you just started learning it a few days ago," Wakka replies. A smile creeps up on my face, "Aww… I bet you say that to all the people you find floating unconscious in the ocean." Wakka laughs, "Ha ha, what do you say about heading back to the village and helping me get dinner ready? It'll be dark soon and I don't want you out of the village then, ya?" Wakka says sounding like an older brother. "Yes, dad," I mock sounded scolded. Wakka scolds, "All right, all right, get a move on!" We both head back to the village.

As I reach the gate I slow down my pace to a walk. _'Whoa… my head feels kinda funny…'_ Taking a few more steps I start to stumble and my vision gets a little blurry. _'Wha…'_ My legs feel like jelly as I start to fall forward. Time seems to slow down to a screeching halt. Everything goes black before I even hit the ground.

* * *

Slowly I start to open my eyes. Everything is still blurry and my head is spinning. I lift my hand to my head and say, "Ugh… where am I?" As my sight increasingly comes into focus I realize I'm in my bed in the Crusader's hut. The room was dark and empty with the exception of a single lamp next to my bed. "Must be night time," I mutter to myself. Just as I lift myself up Wakka walks through the hut entrance. "Hey, you! You gave us quite the scare back there, ya?" Wakka scolds me once again. I reply, still groggy, "Huh?" Wakka laughs, saying, "What, you don't remember? Once you and I got back to the village you starting moving all funny like. You passed out from too much training so I brought you back here for some rest. And here I thought Lulu told you not to overdo it, ya?"

"Oh…yeah," A twinge of guilt passes through me, "Sorry…"

"Ah, don't worry about it. Just try not to overdo it next time, ya?" Wakka says, that older brother tone coming out again. "Right, I'll be more careful next time," I say, unable to keep a straight face. "What? What's so funny?" Wakka asks, clearly confused at what I was smiling about. "It's nothing, don't worry about it," I reassure him. Wakka gives up, "All right. Just get some rest," Just as he reaches the hut entrance he stops and turns back, "I almost forgot. Yuna said she wanted to talk to you tomorrow morning before she heads to the temple for her test."

Curious as to what she'd want to talk about, I reply, "Oh, okay. I'll make sure to remember. And Wakka… Thanks…for everything." Getting bashful, Wakka turns away, "Don't mention it, ya? You're embarrassing me…" When Wakka leaves I return to my ever-abundant thoughts that fill and crowd my head.

'_I wonder what Yuna wants to talk about?'_ I ask myself, _'Ugh, I'll think about it later. I'm beat.'_ And with that I fall back to my pillow with a soft thud and close my eyes, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

The next morning I wake up earlier than usual. It's sort of a habit I've fallen into now that I have no alarm to wake me up. I've always woken up early without the help of an alarm but I usually just try to fall back asleep until the alarm goes off. When I walk out of the hut to go wash my face I see Yuna standing a little ways off, transfixed on the temple. Figuring my face can wait, I walk over and say, "Good morning!"

"Oh, good morning Zeek. You're up pretty early, " Yuna replies, seemingly broken out of her trance. "Yeah, I guess I'm just an early bird. You know I could say the same thing about you," I say. Yuna turns back to the temple as her face shifts from casual to deep in thought.

"Today is the day that I must become a summoner. I must be fully prepared in mind and body before I go," Yuna states, almost as if to be reassuring herself.

"So once you become a summoner, you'll leave Besaid on a pilgrimage, right?" I ask. "That's right. I have to go to all the temples in Spira and obtain their aeons. This is a summoner's training. All this is necessary in order to summon the Final Aeon that awaits in Zanarkand," Yuna explains.

"Wait, you said… Zanarkand?" I ask with a mixture of shock and curiosity. Yuna nods back, "Yes." I look around to make sure no one is within earshot. Yuna looks at me with a questioning look, unsure of what I was up to. _'Should I tell her? Would she think I was crazy?'_

"Do you know if there are any people still living in Zanarkand?" I ask, cautious so as not to make it sound to strange. Yuna, not looking too surprised, begins, "From what I've been told nobody lives there anymore. It is said Sin destroyed Zanarkand a thousand years ago but I've never actually seen it myself."

"I… see," I say slightly disappointed, hoping Yuna would know something. Seeing my dejected face Yuna asks, "May I ask why?" I look back to her, take a deep breath, and begin, "This may sound ridiculous, but I'm…actually from Zanarkand." I cringe my face, ready for something bad to happen. When I look at Yuna, she looks surprised, but in a good way. "You know, you aren't the first person I've met from Zanarkand," Yuna says. My mouth nearly hits the floor when I hear this. The only word I manage to spit out is, "S-seriously?"

Yuna nods again, "His name was Jecht. He was one of my father's guardians ten years ago." I quickly step closer to Yuna, almost face to face, "Did you say Jecht? No way… Back in my Zanarkand Jecht disappeared out at sea one day. He was missing for ten years," If this truly was the same Jecht, it definitely makes sense where he went. "Do you where he is?" Yuna shakes her head, "I can't say I do. In fact, I'm not sure anyone knows where he is."

"Yeah, he was famous back in Zanarkand, too," I start explaining, "He was one of the greatest blitzball players of his time. I've been lucky enough to meet him a few times mostly because his son and I are good friends-" I stop suddenly, thinking back to Tidus, "You haven't had anyone else from Zanarkand stop by here have you?"

"No, not since you got here," Yuna says.

Before we can continue Lulu and Kimahri emerge from the temple. Lulu walks up to us and says, "Good morning you two. Sorry to break up your conversation but its time, Yuna," Lulu says. "Right," Yuna replies, "Sorry about this, Zeek. We'll have to finish our conversation later."

"No problem. You just focus on becoming a summoner okay? Good luck," I respond, giving Yuna a small smile.

'_She'll be fine.'_

"Thank you," Yuna says while bowing. As she and Lulu walk towards the temple entrance I start thinking about Jecht again. _'Could it really be the same Jecht?'_ A rustling noise coming form Wakka's hut breaks my train of thought. Wakka jumps out, frantically looking around for something. As soon as he sees me he runs over and asks, "Zeek! Have you seen Yuna?" I nod, "Yeah, her, Lulu, and Kimahri all headed for the temple-" Before I could finish my sentence Wakka took off like a racehorse toward the temple. I laugh to myself, "Never a dull moment here."

I start walking towards the village exit, hoping to get some training in before Yuna finishes her test. As I near the gate I hear footsteps running toward me. Turning around I see Wakka headed my way. Puzzled, I ask, "Don't you need to be with Yuna in the temple?"

"Nah, Lulu and Kimahri are there with her. Once the apprentice summoner enters the trials no one else can enter, not even guardians. But in the case of a real emergency I'm the back-up guy," Wakka explains. I give him a puzzled look, "Trials?"

"Inside the temple is what's called the Cloister of Trials. These are a set of puzzles designed to test the faith of the summoner and their guardians," Wakka explains. "Ah, I see. So do you have any plans since you're pretty much free?" I inquire. "Just blitzball practice. You said you were a blitzball player right? How about you come practice with us today?" It has been a while since I practiced any blitzball but can you really blame me? I've only traveled a thousand years into the future.

"Sure. I haven't played in a while so little practice wouldn't hurt," I reply, "Don't want to be getting rusty, right?" Wakka laughs, "You got that right! Let's go gather up the boys and head to the beach-" _(grrrgh)_ "… um" I mutter. "What you hungry? _(grrrgmm)_ …" A smile spread across my face as Wakka gives in, "All right, we'll start practice after we get some breakfast."

Once we finish eating we gather up all the other Aurochs and walk down to the beach. Along the way Wakka and I take care of a few fiends. Now that my hands are all healed and my gloves all fixed up I'm free to go all out, which is fortunate for the Aurochs. They may be blitzball players but these guys don't really have any guts whatsoever.

When we finally reach the beach I notice just how clear and inviting the ocean is. However, I'm still cautious about my first steps in, making sure there aren't any more Sahagin lurking about. When the coast was clear I rushed into the water at full speed. Man did it feel good. The water rushing along my skin as I dove down deep felt long overdue. Shortly after I broke through the surface we started practicing. We covered all the basics like passing, tackling, shooting, etc. Now I probably won't be the first to tell you this but these guys… are not good. They seem to give it they're all but the effort just doesn't produce results. Surprisingly, they didn't seem too discouraged by this. It's almost like they're used to being terrible blitzball players. Weird.

Before I know it Wakka is calling everyone in, calling it a day on blitzball practice, "Let's bring it in boys." When I look up to the sun I see it was well on its way down, getting ready to call it night. It really wasn't much of a surprise seeing as how much I was intervening in practice, showing proper defending and tackling and giving tips out here and there. I guess I learned more blitzing for the Abes than I realized. On the way back to the village it seemed like there weren't as many fiends prowling around like there were earlier. _'Guess the fiends are calling it a day, too.'_

When we got back we all had dinner together and then relaxed on the steps of the temple. "Hey Wakka,"

"Yeah? What's up?" asks Wakka. "Do you know if Yuna and the others are still inside the Cloister of Trials?" unsure if becoming a summoner should take this long, "I haven't seen any of them in the village since they left this morning." Wakka leans back, seemingly unworried by the current situation. "To be honest, I have no idea how long it will take."

"What?"

"Every person is different, just like in this world of ours. I don't see how it wouldn't apply to becoming a summoner either. All we can really do is pray that she becomes a summoner," Wakka explains. Not exactly the answer I was hoping for. But Wakka's right. All we can do now is pray for her safe return.

As night there was still no sign of Yuna, Kimahri, or Lulu. Personally, I was getting a little worried. I know Wakka said that we can't interfere but shouldn't there be some way for us to see if they are okay? But I suppose it won't do any good to worry about it. Eventually I decide to just go to sleep. Maybe a good nights rest will relax my mind. Wakka tells me that if anything happens he'll wake me up immediately. As I walk over to the Crusader's hut I look up in the night sky and see several hundred stars fill the sky. It was amazing… breathtaking, even. I'd never seen anything like it before, especially not in Zanarkand. There were always lights on at night so you couldn't see anything in the night sky. Seeing the vast amount of twinkling stars really helped to clear my mind. '_You know, I think I'll do a little more training before I hit the hay,'_ I convince myself. _'It's a nice enough evening anyway.'_

I head just far enough away from the village so that I don't accidentally misfire and set one of the huts ablaze… again. Luckily, most of the fiends decided to call it a night so there weren't any around to bother me. Hopefully I won't wake them up. And so, I once again concentrate my mind, 'The power to protect others,' "Hah!"

The following morning came like a smack in the face. When I finally called it a night the previous evening I could have sworn I saw a hint of orange filling the sky. I didn't think I was out THAT late. Anyway, as soon as I hit my bed I was out in an instant. What seemed like a moment later was Wakka standing over me and waking me up. "Hey! Rise and shine!"

" _(grumble)_ "

Who needs an old fashioned alarm clock when you have your own Wakka! He'll wake you up bright and early with a loud island accent that will guarantee to wake up even the deepest of sleepers. Best of all, he's mobile. You can take him on the go. Order now and we'll double the offer!

Whoa, okay, one Wakka is enough, thank you.

Slowly I make my way out the tent to be greeted by the glaring white sun blinding me. When my eyes adjust I notice the Aurochs all huddled up. I walk over to see what's up when Wakka emerges from the temple. All the Aurochs, myself included, turn to him apparently waiting for something.

"Okay boys, as you know the next blitz tournament is going to be held in Luca in a few days so we need to get in as much practice as we can before then, ya?" Wakka starts explaining. "So after breakfast we head straight for the beach." One of the Aurochs, I think his name was Datto, speaks up, "Any news on Lady Yuna and the others?" The mumbling in the group tells me everyone else was wondering the same thing. Wakka shifts back and forth a bit before saying, "There's no news about what's going on in there. We can' t really find out anything with no one being allowed in to go and check." More mumbling comes up. "Now let's get some breakfast and focus on getting ready for the tournament, ya?" Everyone replies, "Cap'n" Unsatisfied with the response, Wakka raises his voice and says, "I can't hear you!" The Aurochs perk up at this and shout back with gusto, "Cap'n!"

"That's more like it," Wakka says with a smile. As the rest of the Aurochs go to get some breakfast Wakka hangs back for a second. He turns to me and says, "Hey, Zeek, there's something I want to give you before we head out to Luca." He turns to walk towards the item shop before saying, "Wait here a second." The gears in my head start spinning trying to think what in the world Wakka is up to now. When he walks out I see him holding a three foot long bronze mace. The shaft was a dull bronze that matched the smooth rounded end. The head matched the color of the shaft and was shaped like an octagon.

"I want you to take this with you when you finally decide to head out to find your friends. I've seen you practice your magic as well as practice blitzball. You manage to balance both your physical strength as well as your magical strength well, but you'll need to train extra hard to keep both of those up to snuff," Wakka explains. "That's where this baby comes in," Wakka indicates toward the mace, "Maces have a special property to them that allows them to be effective melee weapons as well as useful magic boosters. Perfect for you, right?" He hands me the mace as I eye it in admiration. I've never owned an actual weapon before so it was kind of new to me. Granted I've seen them everywhere but to actually own one was… a nice confidence boost.

"Are you sure? I mean, I appreciate it but… you don't have to give it to me, what with the tournament coming up and-" Wakka raises his hand, not listening to my reasons. "Don't worry about it. Think of it as a thank you for helping and the guys during practice, ya? That and it's been nice having you as a visitor to our village. Besides you're gonna need more than just your fists if you're going out into the world to look for your friends, ya?" I get a lump in my throat before I finally manage to say, "Thank you, Wakka. I really appreciate it." Wakka turns away again, getting embarrassed, "Aww… I told you not to mention it. Say, how about we get some breakfast now. You can practice with that afterward," Wakka says pointing at my new mace. "But what about-" Wakka cuts in again, "Don't worry about practice. You just make sure you get comfortable using that." Not really wanting to disagree I nod my head in agreement as we head off to breakfast.

Once breakfast is finished Wakka and the rest of the Aurochs head down to the beach for practice while I stay behind in the village, admiring my new weapon. _'Hee hee, I can't help but get a big grin on my face whenever I see this,' _I think as I place it in its new leather handle along my waistline.

"Right, first things first, I'd better practice with this before I take it out for real." I head out of the village to my usual training grounds and start by simply getting a feel for holding my new weapon by lightly swinging it around. After I get a feel for the weight and momentum of my swings I start increasing the intensity, making larger and more powerful strikes.

'_Wakka also said that it will boost my magic. Let's see how that works…'_ I start focusing my mana into the mace. The mace seems to react to my mana being charged through my hands. I can feel the power of my magic increase simply by channeling a small amount of mana into it. I start off by casting a few Black Magic spells followed by my signature Green Magic spells. The ease of casting magic is so apparent with this weapon that I start to wonder why Lulu never told me about it while we trained. As I cast a few more spells a Dingo happens to come across my training grounds and decides it wants to test my new mace out.

"Here we go… "

I run forward and swing my mace upward, hitting the Dingo's face and upper body, knocking it off its front legs a bit. Not taking the hit too kindly the Dingo lunges forward to take a bit out of me. Quickly, I channel a small amount of mana into the mace and cast Protect. The fiend bounces off the shield created, allowing me to get the upper hand. I wind up and swing horizontally to the left hitting the Dingo square across the jaw. The blow causes the fiend to fly a few feet to the side before it rolls over and dissolves into a cloud of pyreflies. My adrenaline kicks in as my excitement builds at the ease of success from my first battle with my newly acquired weapon.

Turning around, I see a Water Flan slink by, unaware of my presence. I call over to it, "Hey ugly, this way!" The Flan stops to turn towards me, an evil grin spreading across its… face. It starts powering up a Water spell but in an instant I cast a Thunder spell, killing it on the spot. This may be the blood-lust talking but this is kind of… exciting. As I continue practicing I start thinking back to Zanarkand when Tidus and Auron used their own powerful attacks on the giant tentacle fiend. _'I think now would be an opportune time to make up my own special attack.'_

After playing around with a few ideas I finally come up with one that would work, with the right execution. I won't spoil the surprise just yet so you'll just have to wait and see what it is!

Feeling a bit exhausted I head back to the village. I think it's just about lunchtime, too.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the beach…

"Okay boys, let's practice some passes!" Wakka shouts out. As the guys get into pairs to practice Wakka grabs a ball and starts juggling it with his foot. On his fifth bounce he launches the ball just above his head and kicks it out to the sea. "Ow!" A voice calls out. Wakka turns back to scan the ocean for the source of the noise, "Well I'll be… Hey! You okay?"

* * *

Back in the village, I find myself leisurely strolling around with no destination in mind. Even the villagers are enjoying the pleasant weather. As my gaze passes by the temple my curiosity gets the better of me. In my entire time in Besaid I've once seen the inside of the temple. I've seen the other villagers walk in and out freely so it shouldn't be any problem if I go in, right? After all, I'm still 'suffering from Sin's toxin'.

When I walk inside I immediately sense an air of spirituality. Several rows of statues line the circular wall while elegant patterns cover the ceiling and floor. It was also pretty dark inside with only a handful of torches providing light to the large room. Towards the back there were four large statues and in between the two middle ones was a staircase. _'From what I remember, these statues are in honor of the four High Summoners that defeated Sin in the past, at least that's what Wakka told me. I wonder which one is Yuna's father…'_

Off to each side of the staircase was a door leading into some kind of room. I decide to enter the room on the right. This room was also circular and lit much better. There was a giant scroll along the wall to my left and several books were scattered throughout. Surprisingly enough to me, I could hear one of the priests outside talking to someone. It sounded like he was explaining to them about the High Summoners, which is kind of weird since everyone is supposed to know about them.

Once I got bored of the room I walk back out into the main hall. Having had enough of this darkness I figure I'll go back outside and train some more. Just before I head out I turn to the priest standing next to one of the statues ask, "Do you know if Yuna has finished her test yet?" The priest shakes his head solemnly, saying, "Nope, not yet. I was just about to ask Wakka to go in and see if everyone in there is all right. They've been in there for over a day now. I pray everything is all right."

"I could go ask Wakka for you," I offer. "Oh, that would be most helpful. Thank you, son," The priest replies, performing the 'prayer'.

As I walk out of the temple the brightness of the sun assaults my eyes. I start walking down the temple steps as my eyes adjust. For a second, I could swear I saw a familiar figure walk into Wakka's hut. "Was that… no… no, it couldn't be… " Thinking it was someone I knew. _'It's probably just the light playing tricks on my eyes.'_ Anyway, I should go talk to Wakka. I wonder if he's back yet. When I get near the hut's entrance Wakka bursts out and nearly knocks me over.

"Whoa! Sorry, Zeek. Didn't see you there," I laugh, "It's all right. Say Wakka, I bet you'd really like to check on Yuna, huh, huh?" I give a little elbow in the side. He exhales as he walks towards the temple, "Zeek, you know why. Did one of the priests put you up to this?" Wakka asks. 'Was it that obvious?' I offered to do it. I figured you wouldn't be able to refuse my glowing and welcoming personality," I say with a wide grin. "Fine, I'll go talk to one of the priests and see what I can do. Will that work?" Wakka asks slightly defeated. I salute him, saying, "Yes, sir."

Wakka's face lights up as he puts his hands on my shoulders, "You just worry about your training, ya? I'll come get you if anything happens." I give him a big nod, saying, "All right!" Following that we both turn our separate ways: Wakka to the temple and me to my training grounds.

* * *

"Wakka?" A voice calls from inside Wakka's hut. Looking around, the boy doesn't see anyone around. He gets up from his bed and walks out to the village. When he looks toward the village gate he sees a familiar shape walking up the hill, "That almost looks like… Nah, it couldn't be." The boy turns and runs to the temple.

* * *

The numbers of fiends around my training area have started increasing lately, which actually makes for good practice. I'm really starting to get the hang of using the mace as a weapon and as a tool for making my magic more powerful. As I stop to take a short break under a large tree several Dingos walk out of the bushes looking for a meal. "Uh oh,"

I quickly grab my mace and get into my fighting stance, not about to be caught off guard. One of the Dingos jumps out at me. I side stop right, evading the attack. I swing my mace upward, smacking the fiend and sending it back a few feet. Another one jumps at me from behind. Turning around just in time I duck and blast it with a Fire spell. While the fiend is burning I quickly bring my mace down upon its body, aiming to kill it. With a sickening thud the fiend dies and the pyreflies float away. Not too happy seeing their friend killed, the other two Dingos pounce at me. I spin around, swinging my mace at the same time and hit both Dingos out of the way. I then cast another Fire spell on each Dingo, stunning them long enough to club each one away. When the fires finally die down both fiends lay motionless on the ground as their pyreflies drift up. "Ha ha, another victory for me," I cheer happily. Before I can continue celebrating I see a bright flash in the direction of the village temple. It soars high into the air and disappears into the clouds. _'What in the world was that? Was that… maybe a signal? It couldn't hurt to check it out.'_ My curiosity can really get the better of me sometimes. Oh well.

As I get near the village gate I can see many of the villagers walking away from the temple with a certain summoner in their ranks. _'Hey! Yuna's finally out. I wonder if that means she's become a summoner?'_ When I enter the village I see Yuna standing in the middle of the village's stone circle, waiting for something. When she finally sees me she waves with a big smile on her face, "Zeek! I did it! I'm a summoner!"

"Hey, congratulations!" I say with a smile of my own. "So, why's everyone waiting around here?"

"I'm about to summon my first aeon, would you like to stay and watch?" she asks. "O-of course I will," I stutter as my face reddens, "Just let me find Wakka and Lulu first." As I make my way to the other side of the crowd I see Lulu. Behind her near the temple I see Kimahri standing by himself. Must not like crowds.

"I was starting to wonder when you'd all make it out," I say walking up to Lulu. She turns her head at me and gives me a cold stare. I quickly raise my hands in an attempt to show that I meant no harm, "Kidding! I was kidding."

"Hmph," The woman responds. With no sign of Wakka around, I ask, "Is Wakka somewhere around here?" Without shifting her gaze Lulu replies, "He's probably still in the temple. He brought back another 'friend' he found near the beach, not unlike you."

"Seriously? What are the odds of that?" I say with a slight chuckle. Lulu then turns to me, "You know, his clothes did have some resemblance to yours. Perhaps you may know him?" At hearing this I instantly get into serious mode. But before I can try to think about what this means, a familiar voice rings out behind me, "Wait til' you see this!" Turning around I see a boy being pulled along by Wakka.

"I can't see anything!" the boy says.

'_Is, is it really…'_ As the boy breaks free from Wakka's arm I get a clear view of his face. There was no doubt about it, "Tidus?"

The boy looks up at where the voice came from, "Huh? Zeek? Whoa, is that really you? What are you doing here?" A big grin covers my face as I say, "I could ask you the same thing! Where have you been?" Wakka cuts in before Tidus replies, "Hey, the show's about to start," He then turns to Yuna and signals, "Ready!"

Yuna takes a few steps forward, staff in hand. When she comes to a stop she lifts both her arms in the air, brings the staff back down in front of her, then quickly stops back while swinging the staff behind her. Several lights start surrounding her as a giant glyph appears and spins under her feet. Four brilliant lights jet out from the glyph and into the sky, merging into one. In a small series of flashes, a large creature shoots down and lands right in front of Yuna. Somewhat hesitant, Yuna walks up to the aeon and reaches out to pet it. Talk about having guts, you wouldn't get me doing that. The creature seems to almost purr as Yuna strokes the feathers (?) of its neck. Everyone around 'oohs' and 'aahs' at the sight of the village's newest summoner and her aeon. As the aeon flies back into the sky, Wakka and Lulu quickly run up to Yuna and congratulate her. Tidus and I hang back for a second, still slightly shocked at what we have just seen.

"So how did you get here?" I immediately question Tidus, snapping him out of his reverie. "All right, but let's get out of this crowd first," Tidus suggests. As we back away from the villagers we head to the steps of the temple and sit down.

Tidus then goes on to tell me about everything he's been through. From nearly being eaten by a giant fish monster in some old ruins to meeting a race of people known as the 'Al-Bhed', he sure knew how to make my time here in Besaid look like a vacation. Just like what Lulu said, Wakka found him floating in the ocean. We both got a laugh when I told him the same thing happened with me. As we continue swapping stories Tidus mentions the blitzball tournament Wakka's been talking about lately.

"Wakka even asked me to join up with the Besaid Aurochs for this tournament in a place called Luca." Tidus says. "Really? Are you going to do it?" Tidus leans back, "Yeah. I already told him I would; it's just… with everything that's happened lately I wasn't sure I wanted to or even should. But after finding you here that's changed. Is that cool with you?"

Seeing Tidus this conflicted sure was strange. He's normally so happy-go-lucky and full of spirit. This whole ordeal must be a lot for him to take him. Heck, it has been for me but it hasn't been so hard since I've gotten to know the people here on Besaid. "Yeah, don't worry about it," I reply.

"Hey, that reminds me!" I almost shout with glee. "Huh?" Tidus mutters, giving me a puzzled look. Before Tidus can ask what I'm all excited about I put my hand in front of us and produce a small fireball. "Whoa!" Tidus reacts, jumping back a foot. "Wha… how did you…" The look of shock on his face was priceless. "Since I've been here I've practicing how to use magic! I was preparing to go look for you and Auron so I learned how to use it from Lulu and Yuna," I explain. "Speaking of which, you haven't seen him by any chance, have you?" Tidus shakes his head no. I close my eyes, trying to think of some way we can go about looking for our missing companion. Suddenly something clicks in my head, "Hey, Wakka said Luca is a big city right? I think that's where I was going to start looking for you two." Tidus still looks confused. "Let me explain: the more people you have in a place the higher the chance is that someone has seen that person you're looking for, at least, theoretically."

"Ah," Tidus says, finally understanding. As we sit and relax Wakka walks up to us, "So, it looks like you two know each other."

"Yeah," we say in unison. I go on, "This is the guy I told you I was looking for," ruffling Tidus' hair at the same time. Wakka grins, "Talk about lucky, ya? So, you two ready to head out tomorrow morning? We'll head to Kilika by boat first. Then, we'll take another boat to Luca. Sound like a plan?" I look at Tidus and then back to Wakka, "Sure, sure but… one question first," I narrow my eyes as I glare at Wakka, "Did you ask Tidus to join the Aurochs for the tournament?"

"Uh, yeah…" Wakka says, taking a step back. I take a step forward, "Why haven't you asked me? You've seen me practice with you, why not ask me to join?" My voice grows steadily louder.

"Hey, Zeek, calm down," Tidus says trying to ease my building anger. "Well, uh, it's… its' just… hey, why are you laughing?" Wakka asks. I'm almost doubled over, trying to stay up from all the laughing. "I was just kidding Wakka, it doesn't really bother me. It was just a joke and I think I got both of you pretty good, too," I say with a big grin.

"Heh… heh, yeah, just a joke…" Wakka mutters as he scratches his head. Tidus gives me a push while laughing, "You little punk…" As I regain my composure I calmly ask Wakka, "So what should we do now?" A devilish smile fills Wakka's face, "I'd say it's time that Besaid's newest summoner has a party thrown in her honor, what do you say?"

Tidus and I both look at each and nod, "Agreed, let's party!"

* * *

While it may not be exactly like the parties we had in Zanarkand, I'm not about to complain. There was a giant bonfire in the center of town with several carved wooden tables surrounding it draped with all kinds of local island fruits, vegetables, meat, etc. Along with the smorgasbord there was music and dancing that lasted late into the evening.

Once everything started slowing down Wakka gathered up the Aurochs, Tidus, and myself for one last meeting. As he went over the game plan I started getting distracted by the stars in the sky again. Besides, it's not like I really have any part to play in the tournament anyway. Once the tournament is over Tidus and I can start our search for Auron. It was fun being on Besaid with Wakka and Yuna and Lulu and even Kimahri but we need to figure out how to get back to Zanarkand. If we really are a thousand years in the future… it may be a little tough.

* * *

_(Exhale) That was a long chapter. Like I said before I made this one longer to get the story moving along, even though the gang is still in Besaid. They'll move out soon enough and have all sorts of adventures and fights and other cool stuff so stay tuned and good night! Or morning if you're reading this in the morning. Don't get pregnant, shot, or thrown in jail.  
_


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